Deadlock Workshop

By the time Solomon returned to Hotel Snark, it was already around evening.

“Excuse me, Mr. Solomon.”

A skeleton hotelier, nothing but bones, carefully blocked his path.

“What is it?”

“There is one missed message addressed to you, Mr. Solomon.”

“A message?”

“It is from the Deadlock Guild.”

“……”

The Deadlock Guild. The dwarf weapon workshop that had modified Solomon’s Nightfall automatic crossbow.

“So what does it say?”

“It requests that you stop by for regular maintenance and additional servicing of the automatic crossbow.”

“I see.”

“They strongly requested that you come urgently. The interpretation may be somewhat imperfect, but the message was exactly as follows.”

As he said that, the skeleton hotelier took something out from his chest.

It was a scroll like ancient papyrus, with crooked writing scrawled across it.

「Hey!! Ssolomon!! Come quick!! I’m gonna make yer automatik crossbow even cooler and newly upgraded!!」

“……”

Looking at it now, it wasn’t some dwarf-style Geas at all. It was just how dwarves normally talked.

“If I may say so, I recommend receiving modifications at their workshop before undertaking your next contract.”

“…I’ll do that.”

He would be starting Vlad Țepeș’s contract after nightfall. For now, it would be better to handle what he could finish quickly first.

Solomon headed straight through the Door Room to Downtown District 19, also known as Steel Heart Street.

He found the place he had visited before without difficulty.

Crossing beneath an underground passage marked with a Closed Sewer sign, blistering casting heat and metallic cracking sounds soon struck his skin.

The Deadlock Guild’s underground workshop. When Solomon appeared, unlike the first time, a dwarf showed up as if he’d been waiting and greeted him.

“Hey, you’re late! It feels like a whole century’s passed since I called you!”

“I came as fast as I could.”

Solomon answered casually and took out the automatic crossbow he had stored in his Quick Loader Belt.

With mechanical clicks as the frame drive engaged and snapped into place, the Nightfall XR-10 took shape.

Solomon’s ranged weapon, already modified by them with “Silent Shot” and “Multi-Guided Bolts.”

“Hmph. Looks like you’re using the weapon damn well.”

“It hits pretty well.”

Solomon didn’t deny it.

Whatever the case, since coming to this world, the Nightfall automatic crossbow had become one of Solomon’s most-used weapons.

“Now that the weapon’s starting to feel natural in your hands, we can move to the next step.”

“The next step?”

“A weapon’s like a horse. To run right, you start by training it right.”

And from what I see, that crossbow’s gotten fairly ‘broken in.’”

“So you’re saying the current mod isn’t its maximum performance?”

“You could say that. If anything, it’s closer to not having started at all.”

He had plenty to say, but listening to it, their words did have a point.

Compared to when Solomon first came here, the difference in his growth wasn’t small.

“More importantly, the current mod ain’t something you’d call the best! Though whether you can handle it right now is another matter.”

“I see. I’m looking forward to what kind of modification it’ll be.”

“Silent Shot and Guided Aiming are kid stuff.”

“Truth is, the real purpose was the ‘behavior learning’ we embedded into your crossbow.”

“Behavior learning?”

“What you usually use to go around stabbing people.”

“Oh, it’s all written here. Shadow magic, and lately even blood magic spells…”

“You’re basically a mage made to stab knife holes into people’s backs.”

“……”

The expression he had was as if he was looking straight through Solomon’s records.

Solomon showed caution for a moment, but then realized it.

Providing that much information to a dwarf master who offered custom modifications was an unavoidable risk, and more than anything, it was already agreed upon through the Geas.

“Looking at this, I’ve got a rough idea. Wait here. I’ll be right back after I mod it.”

As he said that, the dwarf snatched Solomon’s Nightfall automatic crossbow in one motion.

“Mage. Shadow and blood magic. Spell-focused. And as an assassin, ambush and sneak attacks, specialized in critical strikes…”

Then, muttering to himself, he vanished with the automatic crossbow.

But unlike last time, this wasn’t a quick in-and-out where he disappeared alone and finished it in a snap.

“Starting now, we’re doing a Type-A spell module modification! Everyone to your stations!”

He shouted to everyone in the workshop.

At the same time, the dwarves in the workshop stopped what they were doing and began preparing a new job.

They stopped hammering whatever was on their anvils, pulled out things that looked like runes or integrated circuits, and began hammering and adjusting them as if they were needed for Solomon’s crossbow.

Rather than blacksmiths, it was meticulous, delicate work like that of clockmakers.

One by one, each role was carried out by process, components took shape, and at last it all connected to Solomon’s Nightfall automatic crossbow at the far end.

Koong!

And finally, with a blisteringly intense hammer strike.

“It’s done.”

Bringing over the Nightfall automatic crossbow still wrapped in the blazing heat of the hammer, the dwarf workshop master spoke.

“I’d like to hear what changed. Give me the rundown.”

“You can’t use the existing bolt cartridges in the automatic crossbow anymore.”

“…That sounds like a downgrade.”

“Listen to the dwarf to the end.”

At Solomon’s doubt, the dwarf master answered without twitching a single eyebrow.

“In exchange, this Nightfall automatic crossbow has been reborn as your staff, purely as a mage.”

“…Staff?”

“First, you can load up to ten shadow bolts by storing magical power equivalent to a 1st-tier spell.”

“Shadow bolts?”

“When they hit, a 「Shadow Mark」 is created on the enemy.”

“When you make additional attacks against a marked target, you’ll deal higher damage through the power of shadow magic.”

“Like when you attack inside 「Veil of Darkness」.”

“…!”

In other words, by landing a crossbow hit, he could create a mark and force a “mandatory ambush check” on the target.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Hmph. You think our shop’s booked out for centuries for no reason?”

To Solomon, who couldn’t hide his pure shock, the dwarf master spat as if it was absurd.

“The monster guys from that hotel who only take District 1 megacorp contracts don’t come to us for no reason.”

“Now I get it.”

The pride a master couldn’t hide. Solomon could accept it too. He was right.

“How absurd my luck has been.”

“Hmph. You made me bleed rainbow nosebleeds and now you’re talking sweet.”

The same dwarf shrugged, looking fed up.

Maybe he’d grown attached in his own way, because Solomon also shrugged and apologized without resisting.

“I was rude back then. I didn’t recognize the master’s skill.”

“Now you can see something through those knot-holes you call eyes, huh?”

As he said that, the dwarf master handed the automatic crossbow to Solomon.

The moment he took it, he could tell. A magical sensation coiling around his fingertips.

‘This couldn’t be better.’

Solomon gave a light bow, stored the Nightfall automatic crossbow in his Quick Loader Belt, and turned away.

Night was approaching.

Back at the hotel, Solomon didn’t hesitate. A new contract was waiting tonight.

“Excuse me, Mr. Solomon.”

Right then, a hotelier knocked as if he had been waiting.

“Room service.”

In the hallway stood a zombie dressed in Hotel Snark’s formal uniform, pushing a luxury room-service trolley.

“Please wait a moment.”

The skeleton began setting things up carefully, moving the serving tray on the trolley’s lower tier.

He laid out a pure white tablecloth and set down a plate covered with a silver cloche, the kind commonly used in French cuisine.

In front of it, he placed a silver fork-and-knife cutlery set and didn’t forget a small plate.

The same absurdly elaborate formality as always.

Of course, this room service wasn’t about the food. It was only the formality that had to be observed so grandly.

“Then, have a pleasant day.”

With that, the skeleton withdrew, rolling the trolley away.

Left alone again, Solomon looked at the tableware before him and the plate covered by a silver lid.

When he lifted the cloche, unlike what he expected, what was there was…

A delicious-looking steak, steam rising in soft curls.

“……”

A note was enclosed beside it.

— Oh, it isn’t human meat, so don’t be so worried.

It was a note from Vlad Țepeș.

— This is my ‘gesture’ sent especially before the contract.

— Using the finest beef cattle raised on pasture outside the city, our Wallachia Co. culinary staff personally visited the hotel kitchen and even ‘cooked’ it to serve you this meal.

— The contract deadline still has room, so please focus today on savoring this dish.

He didn’t even mention the contract details at all.

That was all the “room service” was. Truly.

In this baffling situation, Solomon could only blink for a moment.

After a brief hesitation, Solomon pressed the call bell at once.

“You called.”

“I thought it was room service, but it was just a dish.”

“That is correct.”

The hotelier nodded as he answered.

“At Chairman Vlad Țepeș’s request, we received a request to provide Mr. Solomon with the finest beef. In particular, Wallachia Co.’s top-class chef visited the hotel kitchen.”

“So it’s just beef?”

“Yes. As you can see, it is cattle raised on pasture outside the city. Please set your concerns aside regarding that.”

“What about the room service for the contract?”

“He has provided the information to the hotel, but specifically requested that the delivery time be tomorrow at midnight. Oh, it has now been exactly ten minutes of resting. This is the optimal time to eat.”

“……”

Solomon fell silent, dumbfounded.

But with no other choice, he sent the hotelier away and sat at the table.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve been hungry all day.’

No matter how suspicious it was, with this level of assurance, it didn’t seem like something he couldn’t eat.

After thinking that, Solomon carefully cut the meat with his knife.

Then he carefully put it in his mouth and chewed.

‘…It tastes good.’

For someone like him, who didn’t know the deep richness or subtlety only gourmets understood, that was about all he could say.

That didn’t mean it tasted bad.

It was certainly excellent, and he could feel an unusual level of care you didn’t see in ordinary cooking, almost to an excessive degree.

Even so, that was all. In the end, it wasn’t a drug or alcohol. It was just beef.

That was the truth. No matter how expensive a dish was, how often did its value really live up to its price once you actually tasted it?

At least by Solomon’s common sense, meaning even across all his experience from the other world, it was the same.

Most of the time, what gourmets consume isn’t the food itself. It’s the price, or the information about the food.

Even so, what was the gourmet obsession Chairman Vlad Țepeș clung to so much for?

‘…’

Nothing would change. After finishing the filling meal, Solomon checked his situation.

All that remained was to face tomorrow.

To meet a new night, for now, it was time to rest.

The next night.

“Room service.”

A knock at the door, as if it had been waiting. Solomon silently rose.

He put on his stealth coat, hid the Ghost Whale Bone Blade and the Sun Ruby Blade in each sleeve, and finally stowed the Nightfall crossbow in his quick-loader belt.

To do what he ought to do as Hotel Snark’s cleaner.